Abstract
Objective To examine the establishment of Health Japan 21 regional plans according to the local community type.
Methods We sent all the Japanese local governments a questionnaire regarding the establishment of health Japan 21 regional plans with a request to provide a hardcopy of established regional plans.
Results Of the respondent 1954 local communities, the proportions regarding establishment of plans (including “Completed” and “In the course of”) according to the community type were: major, middle sized cities and Tokyo metropolitan wards, 100%; other cities, 64.9%; towns, 40.7%; and villages, 38.8%. Of the 500 local communities which answered “Completed establishment”, the proportions with release onto the internet (including “Completed” and “In the course of”) were: major cities, 100%; middle sized cities, 67.7%; Tokyo metropolitan wards, 85.7%; other cities, 38.8%; towns, 13.5%; and villages, 14.3%. We examined whether each of the 462 collected regional plans included each of the national Health Japan 21's target themes and items, and found a tendency for smaller community’ regional plans to be less likely to give comprehensive coverage.
Conclusion More support for smaller local governments is necessary to achieve establishment and effective implementation of Health Japan 21 regional plans.
